Well readers, I've said before I began as a horror writer, so here's my entry into the Halloween story contest. This piece is a culmination of some of my hardest, filthiest kinks or fevered fantasies and is one of the most bizarre pieces I've ever written. I felt I had to get it out.
I hope, in turn, you get something out of it.
He Lies in Wait
The copier whirred and beeped, leaves of hot-to-the-touch paper sliding from the mechanism and falling gracefully in the tray. A perfect example of mechanization functioning without perturbance.
Unlike the woman standing there, staring at it in a daze.
Every so often, she had to take the finished stack and place them aside in order to start the next round, but other than that, she moved little. Her body hung slack in place, almost as if she were being pulled downward by a great weight.
The mundanity of the task allowed her to drift off, and no one noticed. It was just business as usual to them. The machine kept producing.
Each time she had to move to collect her copies and stack them neatly, she flinched. They were there. No one else could see them, as she'd learned long ago, but she could. See and feel,
hear
. Sometimes they were thin and pretty, like jewelry. Not now. Right then they were thick and hideous, cold, heavy, and they created a merciless din no one could ever hear; if anyone ever did, they
never
commented on it.
Chains. Clanking, rusted lengths of twisted metal far uglier than the chains of greed worn by one Jacob Marley. They encircled her ankles and wrists, seamless, and one extremely thick noose that should (by all accounts) be impossible in steel hung from her neck as a looming threat.
The phantasmal binds kept her trapped, her gait impaired. The length from the noose trailed from her body and slithered all over the floor. Her coworkers expressed concern when she seemed to trip over nothing. As always, she awkwardly laughed them off and pretended it was all fine, just fine. Long day and all that. Nevermind that this happened like clockwork, every few weeks, when the pressure became too much.
Not her damn job or life, not even that she didn't have a boyfriend or anything...
The chains were always there, but they were manageable most of the time. They stayed small and thin, with no tail. It was only when they thickened and began to drag her down that she knew.
It was tonight. When she got home, the 'ritual' would begin.
Even as Elenore Lee punched out, gathered her things, and left work for the weekend, her mind was elsewhere. She trembled in fear, yet...
anticipation
as well. Her heart began to pound as the spectral chain led her out the door, onto the darkened streets. Decorations hung cheerfully or spookily on various establishments as she passed, and she vaguely remembered the holiday weekend.
That's right! Tomorrow was October 30th, or "Devil's Night", and Sunday was Halloween.
A time, it was believed, where spirits and monsters could slip through the cracks of the planes and come to Earth to wreak havoc, possessing, pillaging, murdering and devouring human lives.
How fitting.
Elenore drove home, her bond preceding the journey. As she followed it the length mysteriously retracted, never leaving a trail behind. It only shortened, until the moment she arrived at the place where her energy had been stamped. It was there
he'd
be waiting, as always. It did not matter where she lived or when she moved. There was no escape.
In time, she'd grown used to this. Even though it was unbearable vile agony that threatened to pitch her into an abyss of existential dread. Nothing she saw or felt in the next several hours was truly possible in reality, yet the experiences lived in her head, unfaded, for years. She always emerged unscarred, unbroken, but not
unchanged
.
And she never forgot.
His first visit had been a little more than a decade ago in her twenties, and though it had been explained to her then, it was still difficult to wrap her head around it now. Elenore's existence, apparently, was one that called forth an entity from the pits of Hell that stood apart even from his own brethren. He only appeared to the truly cursed- those made to drag a burden unbearable to most others, their souls not ever freed in death.
The reason for this? 'Balance', apparently. Light and dark existed together, and the universe needed a way to keep each of them in check... even if that meant offloading the excess into human souls. Some people radiated heavenly essences that drew others near. Others collected misfortunes like trinkets. Elenore was one of these "failsafes", and
he
was tasked with her 'keeping'.
Soon enough, she arrived at her building and parked her car in the garage.
Pausing to collect herself and calm her pounding heart, she remained frozen in the driver's seat for a minute. It was only one night. Just until the break of dawn tomorrow, and then it would be over. As always.
Out of the car then, into the building, up an elevator and out onto the fourteenth floor, she followed the chain around her throat, its length shrinking the closer she got. It only acted as a warning, and was reeled into the noose like fishing line as her doom drew her in. Her key came out, her hand shaking.
The door of apartment 1408 at 217 Stanley Street loomed just ahead, and Elenore saw the links drawing taut as she reluctantly approached. Each step dragged the bonds and tighter, harder, toward her fate. They were parallel to the floor by the time she was ready to unlock, and when the small task was done, the chain yanked up
through
the solid barrier.
The second she even began to crack the door it flew open, and the noose around her neck snapped tight. She was yanked roughly forward- right off her feet onto an unforgiving slab of a chest. The door slammed and locked behind her. Elenore trembled, barely daring to look up. She knew who- or
what